Vaadin 2026 Community Survey: What Java Developers Told Us

We asked our customers and community how they use Vaadin,, what they value most, and and what we need to do better. Here’s what we learned from the 2026 survey, even the parts that made us question what we thought we knew.

Key Findings at a Nutshell

• 67% of people build internal applications, and Vaadin’s core is enterprise data-heavy apps
• 63% of people chose Vaadin because they already had a Java team. Existing skills drive adoption
• 40% faster time to market and 30% lower project costs reported by developers
• 83% of commercial users say that UI components are their top value driver
• 35% adopted Vaadin for legacy migration from Swing, JSF, GWT, and JavaFX
• 94% of commercial users would be disappointed if Vaadin disappeared
• Top requests: more components, better documentation, React interoperability

Who Responded to the 2026 Survey

691 developers took the time to tell us about their experiences with Vaadin in our 2026 community survey. 98% of people use Vaadin for work, not side projects or experiments, and 71% are developers (the rest are architects, team leads, and managers).

They come from a lot of different types of organizations:

This isn’t a self-selected group of fans. There are a lot of different people building real enterprise Java web apps with real deadlines.

Internal Apps Are the Most Popular

67% of survey respondents build internal applications with Vaadin. External-facing and SaaS applications account for roughly 30%.

That makes sense with what we’ve always seen: Vaadin’s sweet spot is data-heavy business applications, like the admin panels, dashboards, and operational tools that keep business running. These are the kinds of apps where developer productivity is more important than making sure the design is perfect for every pixel, where security needs are non-negotiable, and where the app needs to be maintained for years, not months.

If you’re building internal tools for a Java team, you’re not alone.

Why Java Teams Choose Vaadin for Enterprise Web Apps

We wanted to know what made them choose Vaadin. Anyone who has worked with enterprise Java will not be surprised by the top answer:

63% said they chose Vaadin because they already had a Java team.

That’s the main point of the value proposition. If your team knows Java, Spring Boot, and Maven, building web UIs in the same language gets rid of the frontend bottleneck. You don't need a separate JavaScript team, no context-switching, and and you don't need two build pipelines.

But having some experience with Java was only part of the picture. The second most important factor was developer productivity and faster development speed. Teams consistently reported that consolidating frontend and backend into a single Java stack cuts down coordination overhead and speeds up delivery cycles. Survey respondents said they got their product to market 40% faster than before

The third big reason was the need for a modern, web-based UI without leaving the Java ecosystem. A lot of teams, especially those running desktop applications built on Swing or JavaFX, don't have to decide whether to move to the web; they just have to figure out how to do it without rewriting everything in a new language. Vaadin lets Java teams build modern, responsive web apps using the skills and infrastructure they already have.

It's interesting that components weren’t the main reason teams chose Vaadin — but they are a major part of the value once teams start building. More on that below.

40% Faster Time to Market, 30% Lower Costs

When developers switched to Vaadin, they said they could deliver their products to market 40% faster and save 30% on the total cost of the project.

Those are averages that people gave themselves, so use them as guides instead of strict benchmarks. But the pattern is consistent: teams that build their stack around Java ship faster and spend less time coordinating between the frontend and backend. You don't have to worry about designing a REST API layer, keeping a frontend build pipeline up to date, or handing off work between teams when your UI logic and business logic run on the same JVM.

What Commercial Users Care About Most

We asked people who have commercial plans, which features they think are the most useful. The results were obvious:

Components are by far the most important thing that adds value. Access to hotfixes and direct expert support are the last two things that make up the top tier. This is the kind of safety net that businesses need when an application is critical to their business.

At the bottom of the list are Acceleration Kits (11%), legacy modernization features (12%), and Vaadin Copilot (14%). That means we need to work on making some of our newer features more useful to developers.

Open Source Is the Starting Point

61% of respondents use the open-source version of Vaadin. That's by design; Vaadin's core framework is fully open source, and we want developers to be able to work without hitting the paywall.

But here’s something we didn’t expect: in developer interviews conducted alongside this survey, many new users didn’t know that Vaadin is open source at all. We need to fix that gap in communication. If you’re evaluating Java web frameworks and open-source licensing matters to you, Vaadin Core is Apache 2.0 licensed.

Swing to Web Migration: Legacy Modernization Is Growing

35% of the companies that took part in the survey chose Vaadin specifically when migrating from legacy frameworks like Swing, JavaFX, JSF, and GWT.

We looked more closely at the group of people who said they keep Swing apps running:

• 78% said their legacy applications are very important to their business, with 64% calling them “critical”
• 37% consider their legacy applications permanent parts of their infrastructure, not temporary fixes that need to be replaced.
• 70% plan to run these apps for 5+ years or more, or even forever
• The majority are still actively developing and adding features to their legacy codebases

This makes it clear that old Java apps aren't going away; they're just changing.  And when organizations decide to modernize, Vaadin is the best way to do it. 35% of those with Swing applications are already migrating to Vaadin, and another 20% are still deciding.

Product-Market Fit: 94% Would Be Disappointed

We asked commercial users the classic question about product-market fit: “How disappointed would you be if you could no longer use Vaadin?”

Only 6% claimed they would not be disappointed. 94% would be very or somewhat disappointed.

That’s a strong signal that for the teams using Vaadin commercially, it's not just a tool; it's the foundation of their infrastructure. Only 2% of commercial users don't have any active projects; the rest are both maintaining existing Vaadin apps and making new ones at the same time. It also means we have a duty to those teams to make sure that that releases happen on time, deliver long-term maintenance, and the roadmap is clear.

When compared, free-tier users have a higher rate of non-use (8%) and less active development, which suggests that a commercial relationship leads to a stronger commitment to the platform.

Where We’re Falling Short

Honest feedback is more valuable than compliments. Here’s what respondents told us needs to improve:

Components need to go further. The most common frustration was that Vaadin doesn’t have enough components, and existing ones need deeper functionality, like advanced grid features like column span and freeze options, more customization out of the box.

Documentation needs to be updated with new releases. Developers, especially those who are new to Vaadin, have a hard time finding up-to-date examples for newer versions. There is a specific gap in CSS styling documentation, even in older versions.

The most common reason why more organizations don't use it is that it doesn't work with other frontend technologies. The most common request was for React integration. Vaadin has a TypeScript and React path with the same Vaadin component library for teams that need flexibility on the front end, but not many people know about this option.

Developer availability is a real concern. Vaadin isn’t as widely known as some alternatives, and organizations report difficulty finding experienced developers.

We’re taking all of this seriously. Better components, better documents, and better interoperability are the things that make the framework more useful for more teams.

What the 2026 Survey Means for the Vaadin Community

This survey backs up what we hear from developers every day: Vaadin works best for Java teams building internal, data-heavy enterprise web apps, and those teams are very committed. The need for legacy modernization is growing, not shrinking. And the open-source core still is the starting point for most developers.

It also tells us where to put our attention: more UI components, better documentation for each release, and clearer messaging about what Vaadin is and how it fits into modern Java development.

If this is your first time using Vaadin, start a project and see how it works your team’s workflow. If you’re already building with Vaadin, thank you for being part of this survey — your feedback directly shapes what we build next.

Want to add something?

We want to hear from you, even if you didn't take this year's survey. You can share your thoughts in the Vaadin Forum, start a discussion on GitHub, or reach out to us. Let us know what's working, what's frustrating, and what you wish Vaadin did differently.

Every piece of feedback helps us prioritize what is most important to the people who are actually building with the framework.